The cryptocurrency industry continues to experience significant evolution, fueled by a geographic change in developer activity and the emergence of new blockchain ecosystems. Electric Capital recently released an annual developer report revealing the prospects of crypto developers worldwide.
The report recognized that seasoned developers, those with more than two years of experience, have increased significantly. Currently, they create 70% of code contributions on prominent blockchain platforms.
However, new talents are also working in the industry and interacting with experienced developers. This highlights that the crypto industry is ready for a future where innovation is highly collaborative and global. As many as 39,148 new developers explored the cryptocurrency industry in 2024, according to the report.
1/ As one of the largest and top 3 fastest growing crypto ecosystems in Asia and South America, more and more developers continue to build Polygon year after year.
Check out @ElectricCapital’s annual developer report to see how Polygon is leading the way in EVM innovation 🧵
— Polygon (※,※) (@0xPolygoon) December 19, 2024
Polygon is the third largest blockchain in Asia and South America
According to the report, SOL emerged as the most attractive protocol among new developers, beating ETH for the first time in history. As the report shows, 2024 marks the first year since 2016 in which another protocol emerged and overtook ETH as the most preferred protocol among developers. As mentioned in the report, 7,625 new developers chose Solana as their preferred blockchain ecosystem, while 6,456 new developers preferred Ethereum.
However, Ethereum still remains the leading ecosystem for decentralized application development in general. The data ranked Ethereum as the number one ecosystem by developer share on every continent. It went ahead and ranked Solana as the second largest blockchain ecosystem across all continents, with 83% year-over-year growth in the number of developers.
The statistics also identified several blockchains that took the third position. Polygon is ranked in the top 3 largest and fastest growing crypto ecosystems in Asia and South America, behind Ethereum and Solana. The third position is also occupied by Polkadot Network, the third largest chain in Europe, after Ethereum and Solana. Base, an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, also took the third position for being the third largest crypto protocol in North America, after Ethereum and Solana. The data also ranked Internet Computer as the third largest blockchain in Africa, after Ethereum and Solana.
The growth of emerging blockchains
While Ethereum and Solana remain dominant blockchains, other emerging protocols such as Polygon, Polkadot, Base, Internet Computer and others are creating their niches. Each of these protocols has attracted more than 1,000 new developers this year, indicating increasing variation in this landscape. This trend highlights a broader maturation of the cryptocurrency world, where technical innovations and specialized applications are driving adoption across blockchains.
With the development of the Web3 landscape, various types of blockchain applications are constantly emerging to realize the need for decentralized applications among Web3 users.
Ethereum is the initial application chain that allows developers to develop complex smart contracts and dApps with a wide range of functionalities. But due to the limitations this came with, other blockchains emerged that offer faster, cheaper transactions and higher scalability for developers.